Load the Driver and Start ntservice

Software Installation for Linux

Platform
Napatech SmartNIC
Content Type
Software Installation Guide
Capture Software Version
Link™ Capture Software 12.7

Before you begin

The following library is needed to run the ntservice daemon:
  • glibc version 2.5 or later

Root privileges are required to reconfigure, start and stop the ntservice daemon.

If the system group napatech exists, user access to ntservice (in effect, any use of SmartNICs with Napatech Link™ Software) requires root privileges or membership of the napatech system group.

To add the system group napatech, execute this command:
# groupadd -r napatech
To add someuser to the napatech system group, execute this command:
# usermod -a -G napatech someuser

For each NUMA node it must be possible to allocate 8 Mbytes of memory to be used for performance measurements. Otherwise ntservice cannot be started.

About this task

Note: If a user-defined installation directory has been selected in Compile and Install the Linux Driver and the Tools, /opt/napatech3/bin/ must be replaced accordingly in the procedure.

Steps

To load the driver and start the ntservice daemon:

Procedure

  1. To load the driver, execute this command:
    # /opt/napatech3/bin/ntload.sh
    Note: This step can be omitted, since Step 2 will start by loading the driver, if this has not been done.
  2. To start ntservice, execute this command:
    # /opt/napatech3/bin/ntstart.sh

    To get information about ntstart.sh options, run /opt/napatech3/bin/ntstart.sh --help.

    The --ntpl <file> option applies the NTPL script in the specified file at start-up.

    The <configuration file> parameter allows you to select a user-defined configuration file instead of /opt/napatech3/config/ntservice.ini.

    The --option allows you to override and supplement configuration file settings. The syntax is:
    {--option [<section_name>].<setting_name>=<setting_value>}
    If omitted, the <section_name> will be inferred from the <setting_name> or defaults to [Adapter0]. Repeat --option to specify more settings.
  3. Optionally, to verify that ntservice is running and to list installed SmartNICs, run the adapterinfo tool:
    $ /opt/napatech3/bin/adapterinfo 
    adapterinfo (v. 3.7.1.87-23646)
    ==============================================================================
    System: 3.7.1.87
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Adapters:  2
    Ports:     6
    ==============================================================================
    Adapter: 0 -
      NT20E3-2-PTP-NEBS-ANL NEBS Analysis Network Adapter PCIe Gen3 2x10Gb SFP+
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Bus ID:             0000:00:09.0
    PCI ID:             18F4:0175
    FPGA ID:            200-9501-09-08-00
    Feature level:      N-ANL10
    Profile:            Capture
    Supported profiles: Capture
    . . .
    Please refer to DN-0449 for more information about the adapterinfo tool.